“Mom, I don’t want to go back to my dad because he wants to have control of our lives,” a daughter tells her mother.

“I know, but I love him, and you know he loves us,” she replies.

“Then why does he hurt us?” her daughter asks. “I know you’re scared, I am too. We don’t have to be.”

This mother was a victim of domestic violence and didn’t feel she could leave her husband. Her eldest daughter took action, moving herself and her mother to a shelter so they could have a better life.In cases of domestic violence, victims often feel they have no other option than to endure the cruelties inflicted on them by their spouse or family. Sometimes, they fear for their life or the lives of their children and sometimes they fear deportment.